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Schmalkald League Protected Lutherans

Dan Graves, MSL

When Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door, the Christian
world was irrevocably changed. It was as if water were poured into
thirsty sand. There was no way to get it back into its bottle again. The
Roman Church and its champion, the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V, did not
recognize that fact at first.

Backed by the pope, Charles V met the Lutherans at Augsburg,
demanding they return to the Roman Church. The Lutherans held their own
in debate and presented him with the Augsburg Confession--a
document which remains their fundamental statement of faith.

Charles V determined to reunify his empire by eradicating Lutheranism
from Germany. On November 19th, 1530, he issued a decree commanding the
Protestant princes to return to the Roman fold. He gave them until April
15th to submit--or face war.

Recognizing their danger, leaders of several German Protestant states
met in the little town of Schmalkalden, in Saxony, Germany two days
before Christmas. On this day, December 31,
1530, the meeting closed. Stating its grievances, it had agreed to
form a League to resist the Holy Roman Emperor if he tried to compel
them to abandon the Reformation. The leaders immediately wrote to other
nations, asking them to join the league or at least offer it their
assistance. They received favorable answers. A treaty was formally
signed on February 27, 1531.

Emperor Charles suddenly found himself in a vulnerable position. Not
only had the Schmalkaldic League arisen to resist his armies, but the
Turks were again threatening Europe from the East. France, too, was
stirring against him. Thanks to these external threats, the emperor
found it necessary to accommodate the German princes. He granted them
free exercise of their religion until a church council or national diet
could decide religious issues.

Charles's involvement kept him from attacking the Lutherans for
sixteen years. But in 1546 the blow fell. Disagreements among the
Schmalkald leaders, the treachery of Prince Maurice, and the
Protestants' military ineptitude gave the emperor as complete a victory
as he could have hoped for. He imposed an "interim" creed upon Germany,
one which made only a few small concessions to the Lutherans.

Bad as the situation was for the Protestants, it did not last long.
Alarmed at the emperor's successes, other powers rose to make his
declining years unhappy. Rome fumed that the emperor had no right to
draft a creed; that was the prerogative of the church. In 1552, Prince
Maurice, fighting again in behalf of the Protestants, won significant
victories and compelled Charles to sign the treaty of Passau which
restored Protestant rights.

Short-lived and seemingly unsuccessful though the Schmalkaldic League
was, it served its purpose. To Protestants it seemed God's Providence
had upheld their cause.

Bibliography:

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. Editor in chief
Hans J. Hillerbrand. New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.

Various encyclopedia articles, internet articles, and histories of the Reformation years.